^ 1 Ava^  Z I 


[. Reprinted  from  the  Library  Journal,  September , iqtq] 


THE  A.  L.  A.:  DIPLOMAT 

By  M.  Llewellyn  Raney,  Librarian  of  Johns  Hopkins  University 


‘‘With  reference  to  your  No.  3368,  of 
the  fifteenth  instant,  and  also  your  No. 
3401  of  the  nineteenth  instant,  the  De- 
partment sees  no  objection  to  enlarging  the 
scope  of  importation  policy  so-called.  Per- 
mit entry  to  approximately  the  same  extent 
and  under  similar  restrictions  as  the  French 
and  British  allow.” 

In  this  cablegram  from  the  Secretary  of 
State  to  the  American  Ambassador  in  Paris 
is  announcement  of  as  signal  an  honor  as 
was  ever  accorded  the  American  Library 
Association  in  its  entire  history.  It  may 
be  called  the  culmination  of  seventeen 
months  of  diplomatic  scrutiny  and  formally 
placed  in  our  hands  the  virtual  exercise  of 
an  extremely  delicate  government  function 
in  war  time — the  importation  of  enemy  pub- 
lications. 

In  England  and  France  this  authority, 
fraught  with  great  possibilities  of  help  or 
harm,  was  vested  in  State  officials,  only-^ 
His  Majesty’s  Stationery  Office/  and  the 
Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs  respectively. 
The  American  policy  was  formulated  on  the 
basis  of  our  investigation  of  foreign  prac- 
tice made  at  the  instance  of  the  State 
Department  and  adopted  without  change. 
In  us  was  concentrated  the  responsibility  of 
carrying  out  this  policy.  Our  mails  were 
carried  in  the  diplomatic  pouch,  our  ship- 
ments under  the  United  States  seal.  The 
entire  arrangement  represented  an  agree- 
ment among  three  Foreign  Offices,  effected 
by  our  initiative,  and  involved,  besides,  the 
active  cooperation  of  the  War  Trade  and 
Censorship  Boards,  two  embassies  and  two 
legations.  Their  extraordinary  courtesies 
it  is  a duty  and  a very  great  pleasure  to 
acknowledge. 

This  movement  outdates  by  six  months 
that  which  resulted  in  the  Association’s  li- 
brary service  to  the  nation’s  armed  forces. 
Indeed,  it  was  this  earlier  experience  that 
led  to  the  writer’s  dispatch  overseas  in  the 
effort  to  extend  our  program  there — an 
effort  which  secured  us  a large  place  in 
the  sun  on  land  and  sea,  adequate  tonnage, 


and  a field  survey,  which,  tabulated,  became 
the  chart  of  our  foreign  staff,  tho  the  lists 
had  been  closed,  cargo  space  was  well-nigh 
unthinkable,  and  the  lines  were  tight  against 
civilians. 

Whether  or  not  this  confidence  of  Wash- 
ington in  the  Committee  on  Importations 
was  ever  shaken  may  be  judged  by  the  fol- 
lowing voluntary  letter  from  the  War  Trade 
Board,  sent  prefatory  to  our  final  action — 
the  examination  of  material  imported 
abroad; — a letter  “which  I fully,  indorse,” 
writes  the  chairman  of  the  Censorship 
Board:  “We  are  very  glad  to  be  able 

to  record  our  satisfaction  of  the  manner  in 
which  our  Enemy  Trading  License  1727 
to  the  American  Library  Association  has 
been  handled  by  you.  We  have  felt  great 
confidence  in  being  able  to  refer  to  you 
requests  for  relief  from  various  libraries 
and  public  institutions  and  we  believe  by 
your  careful  supervision,  the  interests  of 
both  the  Censorship  Board  and  the  War 
Trade  Board  have  been  protected,  and  the 
requirements  of  the  libraries  and  public  in- 
stitutions reasonably  satisfied. 

“In  connection  with  your  trip  abroad,  we 
are  inclined  to  think  that  the  public  interests 
demand  a liberal  interpretation  of  the  terms 
of  our  license,  and  as  far  as  a consistent 
examination  of  any  material  now  im- 
pounded may  satisfy  you,  the  shipments 
should  be  allowed  to  go  forward  liberally. 
We  beg  to  express  our  confidence  in  your 
judgment  in  any  shipments  to  which  you 
mqy  give  your  approval.” 

But  what  business  had  the  American  Li- 
brary Association  or  anybody  else  to  aid 
the  entrance  of  German  publications  in 
war  time,  one  may  ask.  „ Did  we  not  know 
of  their  lying  propaganda?  Besides  was  it 
not  against  the  law  to  trade  with  them 
anyhow  ? 

These  were  just  the  kind  of  questions 
put  to  a prominent  London  librarian  by  his 
indignant  board,  who  brought  him  to  book 
in  the  early  days  of  the  conflict  and  set  a 
day  for  his  trial.  At  the  appointed  time 


2 


he  produced  a letter  from  the  Admiralty 
which  sent  his  accuser^  scurrying  to  cover 
and  dismissed  that  case  with  all  like  it. 

It  appears  that  the  workers  in  one  of 
the  plants  were  falling  of  some  mysterious 
occupational  disease,  and  this  librarian  was 
summoned  to  search  the  literature  for  a rem- 
edy. He  chanced  to  find  it  in  a recent  peri- 
odical received  on  the  license  which  his 
Trustees  thought  to  revoke.  The  epidemic 
was  stayed  and  the  Admiralty’s  commenda- 
tion of  the  library  consulted  was  warm.  It  is 
not  German  science,  art,  and  scholarship 
that  we  crossed  the  Atlantic  to  smash,  but 
the  military  barbarism  which  had  perverted 
them. 

And  right  here  it  is  at  last  permissible 
to  make  two  interesting  disclosures.  In 
Switzerland  we  secured  for  the  American 
Red  Cross  Medical  Library  fin  Paris,  the 
German  periodicals  desired  by  our  physi- 
cians in  military  service,  much  to  their  ac- 
claim; and,  in  the  second  place,  it  was  done 
thru  the  French  Government,  which,  with- 
out any  suggestion  on  our  part  had,  in  in- 
augurating its  importation  procedure,  made 
provision  for  the  Allies  as  well.  Its  ma- 
chinery was  not  employed  for  our  other 
orders,  because  it  would  patently  work  a 
hardship  on  a busy  officer,  but  this  typi- 
cal courtesy  was  keenly  appreciated  and 
merits  the  knowledge  of  the  Association. 

Another  acknowledgement  it  is  a satisfac- 
tion to  chronicle.  The  opportunity  of  per- 
forming all  this  service  was  an  inspiration 
of  Dr.  Frank  P.  Hill,  Chief  Librarian  of 
the  Brooklyn  Public  Library.  He  sug- 
gested the  committee  and  led  them  to  the 
first  Washington  conferences.  To  his  strong 
initiative  we  owe  much  else  that  is  prized  in 
our  war  record.  If  ever  there  was  a 
headstrong  secretary  allowed  free  rein  by 
an  indulgent  chairman,  I am  that  one. 
The  generosity  which  he  has  shown 
on  public  occasions  is  as  fine  a trait  as  it 
is  rare. 

Our  troubles  began  when  the  blockade 
of  the  German  coast  was  established  in 
March,  1915,  tho  with  the  aid  of  other 
neutrals  service  limped  on  for  a year  after- 
ward. The  British  were  not  slow  to  rec- 
ognize the  stupidity  of  refusing  to  read 


what  the  enemy  wrote,  tho  to  perfect  the 
system  of  drawing  off  the  propagandism 
without  breaking  the  yolk  of  science  took 
time. 

On  the  American  side,  the  Librarian  of 
Congress  was  chief  counsel  for  the  first 
two  years,  tho  for  some  months  it  was  gen- 
erally unknown.  With  the  Department  of 
State  and  the  British  Embassy  he  conducted 
a skillful  and  voluminous  correspondence, 
which  resulted,  toward  the  close  of  1915, 
in  the  establishment  of  the  “permit  system,” 
whereby  the  British  Foreign  Office  agreed 
to  the  importation  of  publications  “philo- 
sophical, scientific,  technical  or  educational” 
in  character,  if  destined  for  “universities, 
colleges  or  public  bodies,”  on  applications 
properly  “vouched”  by  the  Librarian  of 
Congress. 

The  inauguration  of  this  system  cost  him 
long  and  arduous  labor,  and  upon  the  prob- 
lem, by  his  consent,  Mr.  T.  W.  Koch,  then 
Chief  of  the  Order  Division  of  the  Library 
of  Congress,  spent  no  small  share  of  his 
time,  while  resident  in  London  during  the 
first  half  of  1917.  He  carried  with  him 
prodigious  lists  of  outstanding  orders  from 
American  libraries,  and,  while  he  has  never 
published  a report,  it  is  known  that  he 
gave  especial  attention  to  parcels  in  deten- 
tion there,  in  the  hope  of  effecting  their 
release. 

But  the  system  came  to  naught,  tho  thru 
no  fault  of  the  “voucher.”  Its  failure  re- 
sulted in  part  from  the  looseness  or  im- 
practicability of  the  terms,  but  largely  from 
the  inclusion  of  objectionable  material  in 
the  boxes  of  an  importing  firm  that  had  se- 
cured its  license  directly. 

It  was  the  protraction  of  this  difficulty 
that  led  in  November  1916  to  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  A.  L.  A.  Committee  on  Impor- 
tations, consisting  of  Messrs.  Frank  P.  Hill 
(Chairman),  E.  H.  Anderson,  C.  W.  An- 
drews and  M.  Llewellyn  Raney  (Secre- 
tary). The  Committee  repaired  at  once  to 
Washington,  and,  after  conferences  ar- 
ranged by  Dr.  Putnam  with  the  Foreign 
Trade  Advisers  of  the  State  Department 
and  the  British  Embassy,  and  inquiries  of 
New  York  importers,  drew  up  a memoran- 
dum, which  the  State  Department  adopted 


3 


for  presentation  to  the  British  Foreign 
Office. 

This  document  recited  difficulties  and  pro- 
posed remedies.  The  result  was  an  order  to 
release  material  detained  at  Rotterdam,  and 
the  abrogation  of  the  permit  system.  Amer- 
ica’s severance  of  diplomatic  relations  and 
entry  into  the  war,  while  the  question  was 
under  discussion  eased  the  whole  situation 
of  course.  Amelioration  of  a condition  was 
what  we  had  sought,  but  the  condition  itself 
was  abolished — a gratifying  outcome. 

In  this  effort  to  modify  a British  order 
our  best  help  came  from  British  citizens. 
To  Sir  William  Osier,  Regius  Professor  of 
Medicine  at  Oxford,  and  Mr.  John  Y.  W. 
MacAlister,-  President  of  the  Library  Asso- 
ciation and  Secretary  of  the  Royal  Society 
of  Medicine,  a statement  of  the  difficulty 
had  been  early  sent.  Sir  William  acted 
instantly,  and  Mr.  MacAlister  never  abated 
his  representations  in  behalf  of  our  program 
till  a timely  letter  of  his  to  the  Foreign 
Office  admittedly  brought  the  matter  to  a 
head  and  a happy  issue.  Further,  if  the 
story  may  be  anticipated,  it  was  the  testi- 
mony of  his  teeming  shelves,  among  others, 
that  a year  later  served  to  win  from  Wash- 
ington the  permission  to  expand  American 
practice  to  the  Allies’  generous  limits. 

Well,  the  material  went  on  shipboard,  the 
system  into  the  discard,  and  the  Commit- 
tee*'set  out  for  Louisville  with  swelling 
fronts.  But  the  game  was  young  yet,  and 
before  it  ended  three  of  the  members  were 
stretched  on  the  ground  while  the  fourth 
was  on  his  knees  computing  his  losses  and 
sending  up  thanks  to  heaven  that  the  war 
had  not  been  conducted  by  diplomats.  Only 
strong  hearts  should  enter  diplomacy.  It 
is  like  boxing  in  a dress  suit.  Either  your 
blow  is  weak,  or  you  split  your  coat.  In 
either  case  you  lose. 

It  was  Germany’s  move  next  and  they 
threatened  to  sink  the  vessel  if  it  sailed. 
So  the  Dutch  Government  held  it  in  port 
and  the  boxes  waited  two  weary  years 
longer  in  Rotterdam  till  we  went  after  them 
in  person  and  brought  them  over. 

But  what  the  Dutch  vessels  would  not  do 
in  the  Atlantic  could  be  done  in  the  North 
Sea,  and  a bit  of  shirtsleeve  diplomacy 


leagued  with  the  Navy  brought  them  the 
rest  of  the  way.  So  that  for  seventeen 
months  our  material  has  crossed  without 
the  loss  of  a page. 

The  Trading-with-the-Enemy  Act  had 
given  the  opportunity  for  a straight  Ameri- 
can policy  and  so  a license  was  granted  to 
the 

“American  Library  Association  of  the 
United  States,  acting  on  behalf  of  uni- 
versities, colleges,  public  institutions  of 
approved  character  in  the  United  States, 
to  trade  with  booksellers  and  publishers 
in  various  places  in  Germany  and  Austria, 
by  importing  into  the  United  States  cer- 
tain publications  of  serial  character  and 
otherwise  issued  in  Germany  or  countries 
allied  with  Germany,  andr  such  publica- 
tions to  be  of  a character  likely  to  as- 
sist important  work  of  research  in  science 
and  scholarship;  Provided,  however,  that 
such  importations  shall  be  carried  out  by 
a method  to  be  arranged  and  approved 
by  the  State  Department,  and  that  such 
importations  shall  be  subject  to  such  su- 
pervision as  the  State  Department  may 
see  fit  to  exercise ; and  Provided,  further 
that  the  admission  of  all  such  publica- 
tions into  the  United  States  shall  be  sub- 
ject to  the  approval  of  the  Censorship 
Board.” 

The  proviso  of  the  State  Department  con- 
trol over  the  particular  license — a sugges-  / 
tion  of  ours,  as  indeed  were  all  its  terms — 
was  due  to  the  case’s  diplomatic  implica- 
tion. The  requirement  for  censorship  was 
patently  imperative.  On  this  score  it  may 
be  reported  with  the  utmost  satisfaction  that 
there  has  not  be$n  a single  excision,  so 
thorogoing  were  the  safeguards  we  threw 
about  the  service. 

The  Department’s  preferred  plan  was  that 
a representative  of  the  Association  should 
take  residence  at  Berne  and  control  all  the 
processes  of  acquisition  and  distribution 'for 
both  the  Government  and  the  libraries.  The 
compromise  procedure  adopted  in  view  of 
the  Secretary’s  imminent  departure  on  an- 
other mission  for  the  Association,  called 
for  the  Committee’s  dispatch  of  an  order 
for  a select  list  of  255  periodicals  to  Hol- 
land, to  be  filled  by  whatever  dealers  were 


4 


found  satisfactorily  employed  by  the  Allies, 
and  to  be  shipped  under  seal  via  England, 
provided  assurances  were  given  for  unin- 
terrupted passage  thru  British  territory. 
These  were  forthcoming  at  once,  the  plan 
was  presented  in  London,  and  the  order 
of  102  institutions  for  the  year  1918  of  these 
journals  went  to  a dealer  at  The  Hague. 
For  a time  the  Department  thought  the 
employment  of  American  agents  possible, 
but  the  experience  of  ‘the  Allies  was  ad- 
verse and  their  method  of  trading  with 
neutrals  was  adopted.  The  bookdealers 
had  of  course  no  grievances  whatever, 
since  the  law  against  trading  with  the 
enemy  applied  as  much  to  them  as  to  the 
multitudinous  other  forms  of  business 
stopped  by  the  war.  It  was  the  institutions 
that  had  the  claim  to  exception  and  theirs 
was  allowed. 

The  limitation  of  the  initial  order  to 
255  periodicals  was  due  both  to  the  Censor- 
ship Board’s  unpreparedness  for  a more 
formidable  task  of  examination,  and  to  our 
general  ignorance  of  the  Allies’  practice. 
It  had  been  quite  widely  asserted  f for  ex- 
ample, that  scientific  journals  were  not 
reaching  England  at  all,  but  only  abstracts 
made  in  Holland.  This  called  for  investi- 
gation there  and  in  France.  The  result  of 
these  two  reports  was  announced  at  Sara- 
toga Springs.  The  Secretary  of  State  had 
cabled  his  approval  and  the  bars  were  down. 
The  libraries  might  order  their  accustomed 
periodicals,  and  but  for  the  Committee’s 
lack  of  clerical  facilities,  together  with  its 
conviction  that  only  books  of  emergency 
should  be  secured,  the  service  might  have 
been  expanded  in  that  direction  as  well. 
The  new  privilege  was  widely  embraced. 

A further  result  was  a joint  proposal 
from  the  State  Department,  War  Trade 
and  Censorship  Boards  that  the  Committee 
extend  its  functions  to  include  all  applica- 
tions, but  its  spokesman  felt  compelled  to 
confine  its  responsibilities  to  libraries;  so 
that  the  idea  of  providing  for  others  was 
abandoned. 

With  the  dispatch  of  that  first  order  to 
The  Hague  began  a train  of  difficulties 
which  taxed  resourcefulness  to  the  utmost 
and  would  have  dragged  us  down  to  defeat 


but  for  a cheerful  determination  to  win  at 
any  cost  short  of  crime. 

1.  It  took  three  weeks  instead  of  a day 
for  the  order  to  travel  from  London  to 
The  Hague. 

2.  It  had  hardly  arrived  when  Dutch  ship- 
ping was  requisitioned  by  the  Allies  and 
in  retaliation  not  a vessel  crossed  to  Eng- 
land for  a month.  It  looked  as  if  the 
pretty  scheme  had  died  a-borning  and  the 
Dutch  agent  had  the  body. 

A cablegram  was  rushed  to  the  State 
Department  asking  if  further  orders  might 
not  be  shifted  to  Switzerland  provided  the 
same  arrangement  for  passage  could  be 
made  with  the  French  Government  as  had 
been  effected  with  the  British.  The  an- 
swer being  quickly  “aye”  from  both  Wash- 
ington and  Paris,  the  few  belated  orders 
in  hand  (as  well  as  the  later  larger  crop 
resulting  from  the  Saratoga  Report)  were 
accordingly  sent  to  Geneva.  This  opened 
an  interesting  and  profitable  experience,  for 
the  present  head  of  the  firm  patronized  is 
an  American  lady  who  has  taken  great  pride 
in  serving  her  f ellow  countrymen  during  this 
emergency. 

3.  The  goods  came  to  Rotterdam  but  the 
shipping  company  refused  to  accept  them 
without  specific  orders  from  London.  This 
cablegram  reached  me  less  than  twenty- 
four  hours  before  sailing  time.  It  was  life 
in  a taxicab  that  day,  with  the  final  promise 
to  ship  at  once  exacted  as  a courtesy  to  the 
State  Department  by  telephone  while  the 
train  drew  into  the  station.  They  crossed. 

4.  The  first  message  received  in  America 
stated  that  on  arrival  in  London  the  boxes 
were  found  to  lack  the  promised  seal  and 
so  had  been  seized  by  the  Government. 
There  had  been  a crossing  of  diplomatic 
signals,  and  it  took  four  months  of  burn- 
ing the  wires  and  feeding  the  pouch  to 
clear  the  boxes  and  land  them  in  New 
York. 

5.  An  American  importer  had  meanwhile 
published  a report  that  without  his  author- 
ization his  Leipzig  office  had  subscribed 
for  half  the  usual  number  of  serials;  so  he 
could  help  his  clients  in  1918  after  all, 
maugre  his  October  disclaimer.  But  as 
the  chairman  of  the  Committee,  playing 


safe,  had  not  communicated  the  Secretary’s 
advices,  the  libraries  did  not  know  wha' 
to  do ; so  they  lay  low  for  the  traveler. 

6.  Their  mystification  was  complete  when 
a little  later  they  received  from  Holland  an 
acknowledgment  of  their  unknown  order. 
102  librarians  caught  in  the  dark  and  all 
talking  at  once ! Furthermore,  the  circu- 
lar enlarged  upon  the  writer’s  ability  to 
supply  them  other  like  material.  This 
aroused  the  wrath  of  the  War  Trade  Board, 
for  it  was  an  uninviting  incitement  to  break 
the  American  law.  The  librarians  lay  a 
little  lower. 

The  Saratoga  Report,  aided  by  the 
Fourth  of  July  division,  burked  mob  vio- 
lence. 

7.  The  bills  arrived  from  Holland  and 
proved  excessive.  Get  Even  Somehow  and 
Co.  rushed  to  mimeograph  with  a denun- 
ciation, but  failed  to  cover  the  rear,  for  a 
little  reconnoitering  discovered  their  prices 
under  parallel  conditions  in  1917  to  have 
been  higher  still.  That  particular  gho-t 
was  not  laid  till  after  a chase  of  ten  months 
and  4000  miles,  but  it  died  nobly. 

8.  Next  came  the  panicky  advice  to  re- 
order everything  stored  in  Leipzig  because 
of  supposedly  impending  confiscation.  A 
bulletin  (one  of  ten  issued  at  intervals  to 
reduce  correspondence)  was  necessary  to 
calm  distraught  nerves. 

9.  Then  appeared  the  wild  canard  that 
the  War  Trade  Board  had  sent  an  agent 
to  Rotterdam  to  seize  and  sell  American 
goods  then  awaiting  shipment.  Librarians 
should  protest.  The  precincts  of  the  Board 
were  filled  with  the  bleating  of  the  af- 
frighted. They  heaved  a brick  at  the  in- 
truder, and  another  pastoral  to  the  flock 
brought  a long  silence. 

10.  With  peace  at  home,  there  remained 
the  siege  at  Rotterdam  to  be  raised,  but 
there  were  no  funds  in  sight.  However, 
to  the  high  finance  that  had  conducted  a 
$60,000,  importation  business  without  clerks, 
and  with  an  expenditure  of  $300  by  the 


157  stockholders  had  brought  them  a profit 
of  $9000  to  date  (not  to  mention  1917), 
that  problem  was  easy.  Had  not  the  Paris 
Peace  Conference  consecrated  the  word“re- 
paration”  ? 

11.  But  the  expedition  itself  seemed  hope- 
less. Was  not  every  approach  guarded? 
All  but  one  little  wicket  in  the  rear,  and 
it  took  no  Epialtes  to  find  it.  The  rescue 
was  celebrated  at  Asbury  Park. 

12.  Finally  came  the  tidings  of  disaster  by 
fire,  but  for  once  Providence  was  not  on 
the  side  of  the  heavy  artillery,  for  the 
State  Department  had  at  last  consented  to 
demobilize  the  remnants,  of  a weary  and 
battle-scarred  committee. 

To  the  officials  of  the  Department  of 
State,  War  Trade  and  Censorship  Boards; 
to  the  lamented  Ambassador  in  London! 
who  made  of  his  chancellery  not  an  office 
merely,  but  a hearthstone ; to  the  Embassy 
in  Paris  for  effective  help;  to  the  Lega- 
tion at  The  Hague  (including  Paul  and  not 
omitting  Engert),  which  carried  a disa- 
greeable burden  graciously;  to  the  Lega- 
tion at  Berne  (including  Moran,  who  not 
only  shipped  the  material  but  tagged  the 
sacks  and  sent  them  on  by  courier)  ; to  the 
officials  of  His  Majesty’s  Stationery  Office, 
Board  of  Trade  and  Postal  Censorship  for 
courteous  cooperation ; to  the  Ministere  des 
Affaires  Etrangeres  and  their  representa- 
tive in  Switzerland,  Prof.  Albert  Leclere, 
for  generous  aid  given;  to  the  officials  of 
the  British  Museum,  London  Library,  Royal 
Society  of  Medicine,  Bibliotheque  Natio- 
nale,  Sorbonne  and  Library  of  Congress  for 
access  to  records ; to  the  American  Consuls 
in  London  and  Rotterdam,  and  the  Dutch 
Consul  in  London,  for  personal  kindness, 
as  well  as  official  aid,  our  libraries,  including 
eight  big  Government  Departments,  are 
under  lasting  obligation.  ^Jt  was  a long, 
hard  pull  with  some  bitter  denunciation,  but 
how  well  worth  while  in  such  goodly  com- 
pany. 

Ave  atque  vale,  E.  T.  L.  1727. 


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